


Care Package

by tarajuku



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-21
Updated: 2015-06-21
Packaged: 2018-04-05 12:30:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4179945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tarajuku/pseuds/tarajuku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Less than 8 hours post-Ultron, Bruce wakes up to a message from Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Care Package

**Author's Note:**

> This is my version of what happens to Bruce in the immediate aftermath of the movie.

Seven hours and 54 minutes after the Hulk ditched his plane, swam to shore, jumped to the top of a rocky coastline cliff, and passed out, a small drone silently landed next to Bruce Banner’s head. Bruce, still half-dazed and exhausted, had been lying on the rocks for at least an hour, unable to will himself to move or do much of anything besides seriously question his decisions and his role in the chain of events that had landed him in his current - and extremely uncomfortable - surroundings. 

“You’re too goddamn old for this, Banner,” he muttered as he sat up. He knew he was in for at least a few hours of the usual post-Hulk sore muscles, painful movements, and splitting headaches, but this time he had the added bonus of waking up in the middle of an expanse of rocks, enormous jagged rocks as far as he could see in every direction. To get himself out of there, he had three options: stay put and wait until he had enough energy to transform again, hike down the steep, treacherous hill, hopefully without being impaled or sliced in half, or get himself to the edge of the cliff and somehow descend the undoubtedly precipitous dropoff; jumping would be easiest, especially if he could land in the water. If there was no water, or even vegetation to break his fall, he was pretty sure the Hulk would force his way out before he hit the ground (and if he couldn’t, if Bruce was still too drained for that...oh well). 

All of those options were terrible and Bruce suddenly found himself longing for military-issue blankets, ridiculously expensive headphones, and people who he could count on to help, or at least to have his back while he got himself together.

Also clothes. Bruce realized his pants were ripped and he longed for clothes - clean ones, ideally, but he wasn’t in the position to be picky about that. 

Sighing, Bruce pulled himself onto his knees, then buried his face in his hands when the change in altitude sent a fresh wave of pain through his head. His original plan was to stand up but, in the interest of not passing out, he instead turned his attention to the drone. It was small - not much bigger than a shoebox - and when Bruce picked it up he found it to be surprisingly light. He flipped it over in his hand and examined it from every angle; there were no visible markings anywhere, no buttons or screens, just a small yellow light and the slight lines to indicate where the drone opened. 

With nothing to suggest the drone’s origin, Bruce didn’t know whether or not he should open it. It could be dangerous, could be from some hostile force, someone who was just waiting for Bruce to go off on his own, away from the other Avengers, before they made their move.

Or it could be from Tony. 

Carefully, Bruce stood up and, besides a little lightheadedness, felt mostly okay - or at least as okay as he was likely to feel, considering the circumstances. He still didn’t know how he was going to get off of the rocks, but he was starting to realize waiting around for the Hulk wasn’t going to be an option. His mouth was bone dry and he suspected the lightheadedness was at least partly the result of not having eaten in the past day or so. 

“Well, this is horrible,” he said, spinning the drone around in his hands. 

Any doubt Bruce had about who sent the drone vanished when, in response to his voice, the light started blinking and the drone rose out of his hands and hovered in front of his face. 

“Hello, Dr. Banner.” The drone’s voice sounded like the AI Tony had installed after he lost JARVIS. 

“Please tell me he didn’t make you sentient, too,” Bruce groaned. 

“No, I am simply a response-based interface,” the drone said brightly. “I do not possess the capacity to make decisions or initiate worldwide genocide.” 

“Good,” Bruce said. “So...I don’t suppose you’ve got any big ideas about how to get off this cliff?” 

The drone rose up a few feet higher and, with a buzzing noise, its seemingly solid bottom neatly separated to lower something in front of Bruce’s face. 

“Seriously?” Bruce said, looking at the handle extending out of the drone. “No offense, but I think you’re a little too small to pick me up.”

“I have been thoroughly weight tested and can safely support up to 600 pounds.”

“Of course you can…” Bruce muttered. He looked at the handle again, looked around at all the rocks, shrugged, and grabbed on. “What the hell, not like I’ve got any better options.” 

“Hold on tight, please,” the drone said. Bruce did and, seconds later, the drone rose straight into the air, flew over the rocks, and gently let Bruce down onto a flat patch of ground. 

“Thanks,” Bruce said, brushing himself off. He noticed that his pants had ripped further and immediately moved to cover himself, but started laughing when he realized he had no need for modesty because the drone wasn’t actually a person (and even if it was, it had come from Tony and had almost certainly seen worse). 

“I am simply doing my job, Dr. Banner.”

“Yeah, about that...what’d he send you for? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the lift and all, but…” Bruce trailed off. He hadn’t expected to be found so quickly but wasn’t at all surprised it was Tony who found him. The only surprising thing was that Tony had sent a little drone instead of flying out there himself and probably begging Bruce to come back. 

Bruce was glad Tony sent a drone instead. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see Tony, he just...he needed some space. From everyone. If Tony had come, Bruce probably would have refused to go with him, which would undoubtedly lead to Tony feeling hurt and Bruce didn’t want that - it was just that Tony didn’t understand why Bruce might _want_ to be alone for awhile. 

The drone had settled onto the ground and, when Bruce sat down next to it, the top of it slid open to reveal what was inside: a change of clothes, a pair of shoes, a metal water bottle, a few energy bars, and a phone. Bruce quickly changed into the clothes and slid the shoes on, then picked up the water bottle and found it to be full. He noticed a small ring in the neck of the bottle and smiled - it was a filter to make saltwater safe to drink. 

Bruce chugged about half the water bottle at once, then put it down and picked up the phone. It was blinking and, when Bruce turned it on, a notification popped up, informing him he had one video message. Of course he did. He really didn’t feel like listening to Tony bargain and plead and whatever else he thought would get Bruce to come back, but Tony _had_ just sent him food and water and clothing, so he supposed playing the message was the least he could do. 

_”Hi Bruce, if you’re actually playing this message, which you’re probably not but I’m gonna leave it anyway, just in case.”_

Tony looked terrible. He clearly hadn’t slept in days - none of them had - but that was hardly unprecedented for Tony. This time, though, his exhaustion was much more physically noticeable. He was too pale, he needed to shave, and he had enormous dark circles under his eyes, which were bloodshot and a little puffy. Bruce wasn’t sure if that was a result of crying, drinking, or not sleeping but, knowing Tony, it was probably a combination of all three. 

Looking at Tony like that, Bruce wished he’d just left a voicemail instead. 

_”So, um, yeah, here’s a secret about my stuff in stealth mode: it’s completely untraceable by anyone except me. That’s how I found you. But I’m not telling them that, not if you don’t want me to. I won’t tell anyone...except Pepper, I’ll probably tell Pepper, but Pep’s not gonna sell you out either.”_

Tony attempted a smile, but his face fell flat almost immediately. 

_”You’re probably expecting me to try to convince you to come back home, but that’s not why I’m sending you this message. I mean, I want you back and if you want to come home I can be out there in like two hours, but...I don’t think that’s what you want right now and I’m not going to push you to do something you don’t want to do. I’ve done enough of that in the past couple of days.”_

Tony looked down, away from the camera, and then he reached off to the side, off-camera, and came back with a glass. He was trying to hold it so Bruce couldn’t see, but, once he seemed to realize it was a hopeless cause, he sighed, raised the glass to his lips, and drained it without comment. 

After he put the glass down, he picked his head back up but couldn’t seem to make himself look straight at the camera. Looking slightly to his right instead, he put his hand on his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut before continuing. 

_”Bruce, look...I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry I dragged you into this, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you because you were right, making Ultron was a terrible idea. I...you know why I did it. You know I never meant for anything like this to happen. But...I just, you know, have a habit of fucking up everything I touch. It’s what I do best.”_

Bruce really wanted to turn away from the screen so he didn’t have to look at Tony, but even if he tried to he knew he couldn’t. Tony had another drink - this time he didn’t even try to hide it - and he looked so...defeated. Desperate. Bruce had seen shades of this side of Tony before - and he’d heard horror stories about some of Tony’s lowest periods - but he’d never seen or imagined Tony this vulnerable, this exposed, with his fragility and his self-loathing overwhelming his usual charm and stubbornness. 

For the first time since he’d woken up, Bruce was actually tempted to go back to New York. 

_”Pepper...Pep’s not back yet but she will be soon and she’s...I dunno what she is. I know she’s probably mad but...as long as she doesn’t...you know. I can’t...she won’t, right? She already knows I’m a total fuck-up and she’s still here, right?”_

Tony rubbed at his eyes and cleared his throat and took another sip of his drink. 

Pepper wouldn’t abandon Tony, or at least Bruce was pretty sure she wouldn’t, especially not when Tony was like this. She cared too much about him to leave him, no matter how much he deserved it, especially not when he was all alone - which he was, Bruce realized, because he was gone and JARVIS was gone and Pepper wasn’t back and Bruce knew if Jim was around he wouldn’t let Tony sit around drinking by himself. 

Bruce didn’t know if Tony was capable of being alone without completely self-destructing. 

_”But anyway. You...I miss you, Bruce, and I want you to come home. I’m not gonna lie about that. But...you know, I don’t have such a great track record with friends. I’m not good at making them and I’m terrible at keeping them and...I don’t want to lose you, Bruce. I really, really don’t. So whatever you need me to do, even if you don’t want anything to do with me right now, I’m there. I mean it, Bruce, if you want me to fuck off and leave you alone, I won’t be happy about it but I’ll do it if it means I didn’t ruin...this. Us.”_

Tony was rubbing at his eyes again and Bruce wanted to reach through the screen and grab the drink out of his hand...and maybe even hug him.

_”So, um, that’s...that’s it, I guess. If you’re even listening. And, Bruce, anything you need, I mean literally anything, just let me know, okay? Whatever I can do to...to make any of this up to you or something, I don’t know. And, okay, I know you hate phones and you’re probably just gonna toss this one into the ocean as soon as I’m done talking but...just...it’s solar powered, it’s in stealth mode just like that plane, and...I’m not gonna track you after this, I swear I’m not. You can drop off the face of the earth if that’s what you really want. But...if you want to...just check in once in awhile? Just...just so I know you’re okay. You don’t even need to call, just text, whatever. I know that’s against, like, every single survival instinct you have, I get that, I really do. And you can do whatever you want with the phone, it’s yours. But, Bruce...just...think about it? For me? Or, hell, for Pepper, because I haven’t told her what happened to you yet but, trust me, she’ll want to hear from you almost as much as I do._

_Take care of yourself, Bruce. And...god, I’m sorry, I don’t think I can say that enough, I’m sorry I fucked everything up and it wasn’t fair to pull you down with me and I regret it, I regret the whole thing, if I could go back I would’ve left the fucking sceptre where it was and maybe none of this would’ve happened. I dunno. Maybe I’m just programmed to destroy everything in my path and things would’ve ended up the same either way.”_

Something beeped and caught Tony’s attention. He seemed to be looking above the camera, probably at a notification on his screen. 

_”So Pep’s on her way home...this isn’t gonna be fun. I didn’t tell her about JARVIS, either, she only knows about Ultron, so...that’s a thing. Yeah, okay, well...bye? For now. Text me, okay? Just once in awhile, even just one word or, like, the angry face emoji or the smiling poop or whatever, anything, Bruce. Please.”_

Tony looked directly into the camera for a moment and Bruce hated how lost he looked. The screen went blank and the only thing keeping Bruce from reluctantly heading back to New York was the knowledge that Pepper was probably already there to take care of Tony so he didn’t have to. 

He put the phone in his pocket, gathered up the water bottle, the energy bars, and his ripped pants, put them into the drone, closed it, and stood up. Time to find out where he was, at least generally, and figure out what to do next. 

Tony had made it very clear that he wanted to hear from Bruce and Bruce intended to text Tony back at some point in the near future. Once he got his bearings, once he found somewhere to stay, then he would text Tony. Not right now, not when the image of Tony looking so awful was so fresh in Bruce’s mind. When Bruce could think about Tony without that sinking feeling in his stomach, then he would text Tony back.

Bruce didn’t make it ten feet before he started feeling guilty. Tony had found him, kept his location a secret, and made sure to send Bruce exactly what he knew Bruce would need before Bruce even woke up. Tony had sworn up and down to let Bruce be, to not reveal his location to anyone (except Pepper), and let Bruce decide on his own when or whether he wanted to come home - and Bruce actually believed him. He knew Tony very badly wanted him to come back and it was very unlike Tony not to insist on getting what he wanted, so his deference to Bruce’s wishes was...significant. It meant something.

Tony was doing what he could to protect Bruce. Generally, Tony wasn’t very good at trying to simply protect people (Ultron was terrible proof of that), but his heart was almost always in the right place. And now Tony - who could barely seem to take care of himself sometimes - was taking care of Bruce, and he was doing a better job of it than anyone else had, besides maybe Betty.

All Tony was asking for in return was one lousy text message - and all Bruce needed to do was suck it up and send one. 

Sighing, he took the phone out. There were only two numbers programmed into it - Tony’s and Pepper’s - and Bruce looked at the screen for a minute while he figured out what to say. He typed and deleted about five different things before he was satisfied with his brief message;

**Thank you, Tony.**

He added the smiling poop emoji and pressed send.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't believe for one second that Tony made something so stealth even he couldn't track it. He's way too paranoid for that.


End file.
